Marilyn Burns, who played Sally Hardesty in the original
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is shocked that the 1974 film remains so popular.

The horror franchise is so enduring that a remake,
Texas Chainsaw 3D, opened during the weekend and rose to No. 1 at the box office.

Burns, 62, makes a cameo appearance in the new film as the character of Verna and is seen as
Sally in archival footage.

The only thing Burns thought about when she starred in the original was how to make the best
film possible.

“Never in my wildest dreams,” she says, “did I think that almost 40 years later I would be
talking about it.”

The film was the first of several horror movies that the Pennsylvania native made — including
Eaten Alive and
Future-Kill — that earned her the title of one of the original scream queens of horror.
But she is most closely associated with
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Burns was a struggling young actress when she auditioned for
Massacre director Tobe Hooper.

Making the super-low-budget film in the sweltering Texas heat became so demanding that many of
the actors wanted to quit.

“We had a lot of strange experiences making the film,” she says. “There were so many trials and
troubles to get it done that it’s just surprising that the film got to make it to the screen. We
didn’t have a lot of fun while making the movie.

“But all of the troubles seemed to help because you can see all of our pain on the screen.”

Burns had to endure long hours of filming, having to run around with red syrup covering her body
to create a bloody look. Her makeup was done in the back of a pickup truck. She even had to redo
scenes because of lost footage.

No experience was stranger than a scene in which Sally’s finger is cut. Burns didn’t find out
until a few years ago that because the prop knife wouldn’t work, Hooper decided to use a real knife
and actually cut her finger.

“That was a real acting job,” Burns says. “What I learned was that, when it comes to acting,
sometimes you just have to get in there and do it.”

She initially thought that her return to the franchise for the latest remake was going to be
just as difficult. When she arrived in Shreveport, La., to film her scenes, she was hit with the
same stifling heat that had plagued the original shoot.

The big difference this time was that there were air-conditioned tents and trailers for the cast
and crew.

“I still have to pinch myself every time I go to a convention because everyone still wants to
talk about the film,” she says. “I am so grateful that they do.”